100+ Best Keyboard Shortcuts for After Effects | Ae Genius

Summary

This video is packed with essential keyboard shortcuts for Adobe After Effects, designed to help users streamline their workflow. It covers a range of tips for navigating the timeline, manipulating layers, handling keyframes, and working with effects. Key actions like jumping to specific times, moving layers and keyframes with precision, and customizing layer properties are explored. The video also highlights advanced techniques like transforming layers and using custom shortcuts to enhance productivity. Overall, these shortcuts empower users to work faster and more efficiently, improving their skills and making them 'After Effects geniuses'.

Takeaways

• 😀 Pressing Alt + Shift + J allows you to jump to a specific time code in the composition using time code format.
• 😀 Use the Page Up/Down keys (or Control + Arrow) to move the playhead frame by frame, and Shift with these keys to jump by 10 frames at a time.
• 😀 Press I to jump to the in point and O to the out point of a selected layer, even when multiple layers are selected.
• 😀 Use Alt + Arrow keys to move layers one frame at a time, and Shift + Alt + Arrow keys to move layers by 10 frames.
• 😀 Hold Ctrl + Arrow to navigate up and down through layers in the timeline, and Ctrl + Shift + Arrow to add layers to your selection.
• 😀 Control + Alt + Home re-centers the anchor point of a layer, even if masks or effects are applied.
• 😀 Press Ctrl + Alt + F to fit a layer to the composition size, but use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + H/G to fit only to the width/height, keeping proportional scaling.
• 😀 Use Ctrl + Alt + T to toggle time remapping on/off, and Ctrl + Alt + R to reverse a layer's time.
• 😀 You can quickly swap layers with new footage while keeping parenting, effects, and keyframes intact by using Ctrl + Alt + Slash.
• 😀 Essential transform property shortcuts: A for Anchor Point, P for Position, R for Rotation, S for Scale, and T for Opacity, with additional shortcuts for masks, keyframes, and expressions.

Q & A

What is the keyboard shortcut to center the playhead in the timeline?

Press the D key to center the playhead in your timeline.

How can you jump to a specific time in the composition using a keyboard shortcut?

Press Alt + Shift + J and type in the desired time using time code (e.g., '2' for 2 seconds, '1.12' for 1 second and 12 frames).

What shortcut do you use to jump to the next or previous keyframe?

Press K to jump to the next keyframe and J to jump to the previous keyframe. Hold Shift and press K or J to jump between the selected keyframes.

How do you move a layer by one frame forward or backward?

With the layer selected, hold Alt and press Page Down to move it forward one frame, or Page Up to move it backward one frame.

What keyboard shortcut allows you to move a layer's in or out point to the playhead position?

To move the in point, press Alt + Left Square Bracket. To move the out point, press Alt + Right Square Bracket.

How can you remove all effects applied to a layer using a shortcut?

Press Ctrl + Shift + E to remove all effects from the selected layer.

How do you quickly toggle through blend modes of a layer?

With the layer selected, hold Shift and press Plus (+) or Minus (-) to cycle through different blend modes.

What is the shortcut to zero out the position, scale, and rotation of a layer?

Press Alt + Z to zero out the position, scale, and rotation of a selected layer.

How do you fit a layer to the composition size, while maintaining its aspect ratio?

Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + H to fit the layer to the width of the comp while maintaining the aspect ratio.

What is the shortcut to swap a layer's source with another item from the project?

Press Ctrl + Alt + Slash (/) to swap the selected layer's source with the item selected in your project panel.